I met you & Jan at the Armenian church in Syracuse. I appreciated your presentation. We spoke later, and I told you I did graduate research in Erevan in 1965, and had met some repatriots who were still stuck there.

Congratulations on your book. It’s a good read, and I had a visceral sense of your experiences.

You mentioned one “Oksen Selian.” I met two men there who were acquaintances of my parents: Oksen Sarian and Badrig Selian. Sarian was a tall, slightly rotund man. Selian was also a tall, thinner man who reminded me of a very pale buzzard.

Sarian gave the image of someone who still believed in the Party, while Selian gave the impression of an opportunistic Party cynic.

I’m curious as to which of these two men you had met.

Best regards,
Zarm Taft
vtaft@twcny.rr.com

Secondly, while autographing my copy of book, you asked me where I was from and when I answered Taiwan, you told me that your daughter went to Taiwan for one year and loved it there. Then, you chuckled that “she is rebellious as me.” Well, going to Taiwan shouldn’t be considered as an act of rebellion. It is a lovely “country” (China does not agree with it), people are friendly. Probably you were worrying about a possibility of missile-firing from China, there are, as right now, over 1400 missiles aimed at the small Island. I am glad to hear that your daughter likes it there. I was there last November and enjoyed every second of my short stay at “home”.

Thirdly, about the U-2 incident. One month ago, my husband and I went to Cortez, CO, to visit our daughter and her husband. While waiting for our commuter flight from there to Denver, we found in the showcase of the small airport lobby, an airpressured suit and a newspaper clip about a U-2 pilot landed at the Cortez airport 50 years ago. Michael Hua, a pilot from Taiwan, was training in Texas then, found this little airfield to land when the plane was in flame. Back then, U-2 was hard to detect on rada, so it was quite a sight when the few night shift personnels saw a plane in flame landed on their airfield and a “spaceman” walking toward them speaking in accented English. At that time, the city of Cortez was debating if they should shut off the lights at night time to save money. Luckily for the pilot, the city kept the lights going, for he could not locate any other lit airfields in that part of Rocky Mountains area. This past August Mike Hua was awarded the “Key to the City” of Cortez at the 50th Anniversary.

Again, thanks for giving the literature world The Repatriate. Good luck on your second book, looking forward to reading it.

I have not reached the death of Stalin in your book. It was a great day. March 5, 1953. I remember that day vividly. I remember coming downstairs and seeing these two young guys expressing joy that Stalin died. There was this 19 year old women who said they should not be happy. I could not figure the conflicting points of views. I was in second grade. I went too class and the teacher cane in and started to cry. I was thinking it is not their mommy or daddy who died. Why are they crying. Somebody called me shpion (spy). I just shined it on? After the first recess out teacher started to do what they generally did. During one of the recesses I talk too Gurgen Manukyan, who was our neighbor. He was in the 8th grade. They had different teachers for each session. He told me that each teacher came, sat down, cried and left.

I am sure mommy and daddy never showed us their joy, but I assume they were dancing inside.